Simple Snacks for the Craving College Student

Melted cheese is a snack?

Here’s a confession.

This is my second snack attempt for this week. The first failed miserably. It was horrible. My homemade organic chocolate crackers look and taste like mud. Seriously. Mud. (No, you can’t see a picture!) I’m by no means a cooking pro. Just ask my grandma, she thinks I’m the shame of the female species. This means the following recipe is quite literally fool-proof. If I can do it, you can do it.

Ready for some crispy cheesy goodness? Here we go. This is hands down the easiest, fastest and most gratifying snack I have ever tasted: cheese chips! It’s literally melted cheese cooked to a crisp. Genius and oh-so-obvious. Why didn’t I think of this?

Here’s your list of ingredients:

Cheese. Any kind. Pre-grated or in a block.

Optional: Spices. Any kind. Go crazy and make them pumpkin spice cheese chips, if you want.

Yes, that’s all. I chose extra sharp cheddar and mozzarella cheese because they have the most kick. The spices serve as extra seasoning, but the chips taste great without them. No rules, no measuring. FREEDOM.

You will also need the following:

Baking sheet

Parchment paper

Sharp knife

Cutting board

Oven. Sorry, microwaves won’t cut it this time!

Optional: cheese grater

Now, let’s break this up into easy steps.

First, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Cover your baking sheet in parchment paper. This is one step you can’t skip, or the melted cheese will stick to the metal. And then you’ll be hungry, and you won’t have a snack. That’s sad. Save your tummy, use parchment paper.

Cut the cheese of your choice into thin strips, then into squares of about an inch.

If you’re feeling brave, grate the cheese and mix in spices.

Put your masterpieces on the baking sheet.Squares should be separated by a an once or so (I overdid it) because they expand so much. Grated cheese goes into cute little pyramids of about a tablespoon each.

Put those babies in the oven and bake them for about 10 minutes, until they bubble and brown on the edges.Let cool for a few minutes, so you end up with a crunchy chip of cheesiness instead of stretchy sludge.

EAT. UP. With your favorite salsa, some hummus, ranch dressing or sour cream. It’s all delicious. At my house, they were gone within five minutes of cool-down.

Okay, that wasn’t so bad, was it? You made it through your first Snack Attack experience! If you want more snacks (and you know you do), be sure to visit next week. I’ll be making something sweet and seasonal – and again, really, really, ridiculously easy. You’re welcome.

P.S. please excuse the formatting of this post. I’m still figuring it out and I promise it won’t always look like your fourth grade computer class!